1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a GOT isozyme assay especially for clinical use.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
GOT (glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase) is an enzyme which is contained principally in tissues such as myocardia, hepatocytes and skeletal muscles. Clinically, when such a tissue is damaged under a condition of, for example, myocardial infarction, hepatopathy, myositis and muscular dystrophy, GOT escapes into blood and therefore a GOT level is elevated in serum.
It is known that GOT has two isozymes which are separately distributed in a cell. That is, one of them is found in a supernatant fraction of the cell (s-GOT) and the other contained in a mitochondrial fraction (m-GOT). The m-GOT concentration or the m-GOT level based on the total GOT in blood is useful for diagnosis and prognosis of said diseases, in particular acute or fulminant hepatitis and alcoholic hepatitis.
Conventional GOT isozyme assay method include, for example, electrophoresis, ion-exchange assay and immunoassay methods. However, these assays are attended with complicated procedure, require long operation time and cannot be carried out with using a conventional autoanalyzer which is clinically used.
For the purpose of solving such problems, Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. 237797/1988 discloses an isozyme assay which comprises selectively inhibiting an isozyme in a sample by a protease in the presence of a protein and determining another isozyme remaining intact.